


Puzzles In Progress

by Dyslexic0writes



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Batdad, Billy being more mature than the justice league, Bruce Wayne Tries, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Crying, Gen, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, Puzzles, Secret Identity Fail, Short & Sweet, Someone give Billy a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25631101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dyslexic0writes/pseuds/Dyslexic0writes
Summary: When he woke up this morning he honestly didn't expect to end the day doing puzzles with Batman. Not complicated 2000 piece puzzles or ones to save his life but one for a child around 500 pieces, which will eventually come together to make an image of Superman. This day could not get any weirder, of course there was a pool of dread leaching at his insides but if he just kept focusing on the task at hand it was like he hadn’t a care in the world.
Relationships: Billy Batson & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 13
Kudos: 416





	Puzzles In Progress

**Author's Note:**

> Yes. I have written another Billy and Batdad hurt/comfort fic...
> 
> I'm not sorry.

The mission the justice league was previously on ended in disaster leaving Captain Marvel's secret identity not so much a secret anymore. Of course the league was furious which was only to be expected, though Billy hadn't expected it to hurt this bad.

When the doors to the watchtowers meeting room shut Billy could feel the undeniable suffocating pool of dread in his stomach weigh down more, as his eyes glossed over with tears. 

His breaths were shaky as he tried to keep them in but it felt as though his lungs turned to iron, not only incapable of letting him breath but also weighing him down further.

The league's reaction had to be the most degrading part of this whole ordeal. As soon as they found out he was a kid they all changed how they acted towards him. Even deeming him too young to join in on the meeting discussing what they're going to do about it. 

How was he supposed to defend himself if he couldn't even get in the room, they refused to listen to anything he had to say and talked to him like he was a two year old. 

He had half a heart to just barge into the room as Captain Marvel but he knew if he did anything they'd add it to the list of reasons to hate him.

Gods they were all going to hate him. 

Nice going Batson, all his idols are now never going to want to talk to him again. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. 

He was jarred out of his thoughts by a light hand on his shoulder, took everything in him not to jump ten feet seeing Batman with a light smile.

Okay, wired.

He was led a bit away from the closed doors and over by a table next to a large window that looked over the expanse of space, he didn't know what the man wanted. He'd thought Batman would’ve been in the room with the other leaguers yelling their ears off but there he was.

Billy looked at him questioningly as he pulled out some puzzles along with some crayons and paper, he honestly didn’t know what was going on.

“W-whats this?” Billy asked balling the end of his red weather to wipe away the tears on his cheeks. 

“The other members need some time to compose themselves, I assume you need some time as well. You can draw, do a puzzle, I'm open to talking, it could be about this or anything unrelated. Or if you’d prefer we could just watch the stars.” The older man answered and he was right Billy felt strung up, he honestly couldn't keep his breathing calm everytime he settled a new wave of emotions flooded in causing the young boy to heave and hiccup breaths.

“Y-yo-oo-ou w-waanna-” Billy tried to get out but was cut off by another crushing wave or tears, Batman was completely unfazed and simply sat the young boy down on one of the chairs and rubbed his back.

“It's alright chum, deep breaths, that's good. How bout a puzzle hmm?” he asked, setting the puzzles in front of the boy.

Billy hadn't done a puzzle in a while, he couldn't buy one seeing as they were often pricey but they had some in Fawcett's public library free to use. He'd spent weekends doing every puzzle they had but after some unfortunate budget cuts by the city the library ended up selling all the puzzles as well as some books. 

There were four puzzles to pick from, one of a cat though it had too many pieces for Billy to do in however long he needed to wait. There was a christmas one as well as a Batman and Superman one. 

Billy ended up picking the Superman one as the Christmas one was out of season and Batman's puzzle had too many black and grey pieces.

Since Billy hadn’t done a puzzle in awhile Batman had no issues guiding him through it.  
When he woke up this morning he honestly didn't expect to end the day doing puzzles with Batman. Not complicated 2000 piece puzzles or ones to save his life but one for a child around 500 pieces, which will eventually come together to make an image of Superman. This day could not get any weirder, of course there was a pool of dread leaching at his insides but if he just kept focusing on the task at hand it was like he hadn’t a care in the world. 

Of course the fact of the justice league knowing his secret identity was the big issue at the moment but whenever the yelling from the meeting room got too loud Batman would simply hand him another piece. As if he couldn't hear the uproar of rage coming from the other side of closed doors. 

When the yelling got too loud for Billy to ignore he asked if they should step in, however the man simply told Billy to wait for them to finish blowing off steam and to wait till they could act more civilly.

They started with the border of the puzzle and he had to admit it was a lot easier than filling the puzzle. 

“Why do we even have this up here?” Billy couldn't help but aske eying the small assortment of crayons and children’s puzzles. 

“Superboy likes to come up here sometimes.” Billy just hummed in reply he'd never met Superboy before but he had heard about the kryptonian a couple of times when Batman talked about how Robin got along well with him. “I've never met him.”

“Maybe you can someday. Here.” He passed the boy another piece as the same argument got passed around the meeting room, it was muffled through closed doors but at a certain level of volume made it painfully hard to ignore. 

“I think this is the hundredth time they’ve said ‘just a kid’ in the last ten minutes.” He sighed putting down another piece and turning to look at the closed meeting room he’d previously had his back to. He could see shadows of some of the leaguers through the tinted glass standing waving their arms around as they yelled, it put an uneasy feeling in him as he thought that he'd have to go in there eventually.

Though suddenly there was another piece in front of his face, he cracked a grin and snatched the piece from the bat turning around again trying to figure out where the price went.

“Why aren't you mad or is it just because ‘your batman’” Billy questioned lowering his voice to imitate the bat In all honesty he was most afraid of his and Supermans reaction though he'd assumed Batman would be the one yelling and not Superman.

“I already knew.”

Billy huffed out an annoyed breath “Figures, guess you're not the world's greatest detective for nothing. But I'm surprised you didn't come barging into the subway full bat get up.”

“Subway? You live with your uncle right?”

“What!? No, that scrooge kicked me out the first chance he got.” The boy huffed crossing his arms, just thinking about his uncle made his blood boil.

“Hmmm your files have approved social services check ins that supply you still live there.(I'll have to look into that later)” Batman stated mumbling the last part, not breaking his gaze from the pile of puzzle pieces he had been sorting through. “So where do you live?”

“I donno changes every month, honestly anywhere with a roof. Tawny doesn't like to get drenched when it rains.”

“Whos twany?”

“Tawny the tiger, he lives in the zoo but often wanders out to stay with me.” Though more recently the tigre’s been sticking around Billy.

“You own a tiger..?”

“No, I don't own a tiger, Tawny's my friend.” Billy laughed out, to be honest Tawny kina acted like a mom but the tiger prefers the word ‘guide’. Batman simply grumbled some stuff about hating magic and handed him another piece.

“This whole magic thing, how did you even get mixed up in all this?”

“I guess fate plays a role but I assume you're looking for more of an answer... I dunno magic trains?'' the man just grunted, a smirk played across his lips. Surprisingly enough he didn't ask for much else, the two seemed content doing the puzzle in a comfortable silence.

Halfway through the puzzle the zeta tube went off and a familiar raven popped around the corner.

“Nightwing what are you doing here?” He’d barely seen the man at the watchtower so this was quite a surprise. 

“I heard B-man over here was having all the fun hanging with Captain Marvel, came to join in.” The young boy had no clue when Batman had the time to alert Nightwing but he wasn't upset the playful raven was here.

Batman seemed to have the actual answers to the question as he supplied. “I have to go reign in some heroes, Nightwing's here to help with the puzzle.” 

“Aww man, doing the Superman puzzle? Why not the batman one?” Nightwing teased as he held up the batman box.

“Superman has more colours.” He answered as Batman lightly squeezed his shoulders reassuringly and walked into the meeting room, unsurprisingly the whole room went silent as the bat entered. Before the doors even shut Billy caught a glimpse of the man of steel who was standing at the front of the table looking in complete disarray. 

Billy turned back to a semi put together Superman puzzle with half a face and barely a torso. It was like some bitter symbolism to his relationship with the man of steel: what was once a nicely put together bond was now a pile of pieces but…

It could be put together again, it was simply a work in progress.


End file.
